Creatures of the Deep
by EchoFallsFromGrace
Summary: Elsa's taken her revenge on a certain con-artist, and the show's going to have to live with the consequences. Rated M for blood and good old fun with the good old cast.
1. Chapter 1

**Not as much an AU as a spin on the plot with the good old cast. Let me know what you think!**

**Headcanoned with and beta-ed byGrace**

**Rated M **

Elsa Mars sighed in content, a light little hum in the air she expelled as she turned her head this way and that, watching her reflection in the handheld mirror in front of her. She arched an eyebrow and pursed her lips, eyes on the hazel eyed blonde staring back at her. She sighed again, a little harsher this time, and snapped the mirror down to stare the girl across from her down.

Maggie Esmeralda was passed out on a lab table, eyes far from fluttering in dreamless dreams. She looked dead, and she would have been except for the light breaths she took every few seconds. Her fingers were curled up, flexed from her surgery still. She'd gone under a long time ago, and she'd take a little while to wake up, something Elsa didn't mind. She talked too much for her liking anyway.

The alluring blonde finally reached forward and began to pick at Maggie's lip, pushing it back to gaze on the girl's new teeth.

Or what could be called teeth.

The doctor'd ripped all her original ones out, her gums were raw and red and bleeding, but they'd been replaced by shards of glass. Shards of glass from bottles she'd found near and around her monsters' tents, brown and green and clear, though most of the clear ones were up front. She'd been given four rows, and Elsa pushed her jaw down a little more, looking down to find her throat covered in glass too, her tongue cut in various places. Whenever she breathed, she contracted around them, into them, bleeding again.

The ringleader glanced sideways at the tall physician, gazing down at his newest experiment with a hint of smugness, wonder in her own eyes. "Beautiful."

"Even if she goes, she'll be one of my greatest achievements." He replied, sniffing lightly, his hands behind his back.

"Oh, do not worry Hans." Elsa whispered, fingers tracing the girl's cheek. "I wouldn't dream of letting her go."

OOOoooOOO

"Mama, have you seen her?"

Ethel Darling looked up from her newspaper, frowning as her son closed her trailer's door behind him. The sunlight glittered off her "The Bearded Lady" sign and on the ground behind him momentarily before he shut the vehicle in. "Her who?" She stood with some difficulty, shaking her head. "I've told you before to be specific. Going around with your 'her's and 'him's."

Jimmy smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. I'm lookin' for Maggie. She left last night and she hasn't come back yet. The sun's going to set soon and the doors will open and she's not here." He took a small step back as his mother walked past him, reaching for a glass that he easily took. She handed him a bottle of water and motioned for him to pour himself a drink. "I don't want Elsa to get mad, she's been here and around all week and doin' real good but if she starts being late or absent, she might not stay long."

"I can't say I have, Jimmy."

"You always know where everyone is."

"If you'd given me some time to get to know her, I might have been able to tell you where she got off to when she wasn't around. But I don't know her. Because you've been monopolizing her time all week, don't think I didn't notice." Ethel added with a laugh. She sighed lightly as he pulled a chair out and thrusted it out at her.

"Sit, you're huffin' all you can."

"That's a nice way to put it." She teased, but she sat back down anyway. "I can't stay in this chair forever, you know."

"Until you tell me what's wrong with you, and until you stop drinkin' again, you will." He replied. "Do you think she went back to the hotel she was stayin' at before?"

"I don't know, I'm not a mind reader like she is. Did she tell you where that was?"

"The hotel?" He moved his grotesque fingers around the side of his glass as he looked away. "No."

"Then maybe she doesn't want to be found." His mother shrugged. "Listen Jimmy, she'll be back. She's got a stable job that pays good money with a place to stay and people to talk with, so why would she up and leave?" She settled back in her chair.

He tried to hide his scoff, but Ethel saw it.

"What is it."

"She makes good money, what kind of shit answer is that?" He asked, throwing out his hand in the air in frustration. "I'm afraid she'll leave."

"Is that why you asked Eve on her whereabouts before you came and asked me? And Paul? Oh, don't blush. The walls here are paper thin. Or metal thin." She rapped her knuckles on the side of her trailer and smiled as it echoed.

"She's not like us, mama. What if she decides she's too good for us after all?"

"Then she walks away. Like plenty have done before, why should she be any different?"

"She is. Different, I mean. There's something good about her. I feel like I can trust her."

Ethel shook her head. "You always think that of a pretty face, and then they go and stab you in the back."

"Whatcha mean?"

The woman glanced up. "What I mean is, don't let yourself get fooled by a girl you've only just met. Or a boy. Or anyone." She pointed at him. "You're smarter than that."

"I know, mama." He ruffled his hair. "Look, Dell might be runnin' the show now but I still look after my family. And Maggie's part of that family now. I just want to make sure she's okay."

"You're a kind soul. She'll be back, Jimmy." She sighed. "She'll be back."

OOOoooOOO

Night had long since fallen on the fairgrounds, and the alluring blonde with her bright blue eye-shadow hid in the shadows as she made her way to the last of the tents, far from the heart of the show. It was only ever used as storage, one wouldn't have deemed it bizarre for her to be making her way there after a performance, but she moved silently anyway.

She could hear muffled noises coming from inside and she glanced back momentarily, smiling when she found herself unable to hear the loudest of the show's happenings. If she wasn't able to hear them, then no one would hear the screams coming from inside the tent.

She pushed her way through the opening in the flaps and watched as her eyes adjusted to the dim lights. Maggie was thrashing in the corner, struggling against the ropes holding her down to her chair.

The girl had spit her rag out and was screaming her lungs out. Every time she paused and closed her mouth, she cut herself again and it only made her cry harder. She let out a shriek and the woman scowled past her awe at the operation she'd been given. If she continued like that, she'd scream herself raw. Elsa couldn't have that, not if she was to be her new headline. She pushed past the tent's scrapped belongings and swooped down on Maggie, whose dark eyes had turned up to look at her. A new scream erupted from her throat, a new wave of tears falling.

"Stop it, stop it!" Elsa's hand flew across the girl's cheek and Maggie let out a scream as she bit through her tongue, blood now flowing freely from between her lips and down the front of her dress. The older blonde grabbed her chin and righted her, light hazel eyes meeting darker ones.

"Stop screaming, it won't help you." She hissed, accent far from smooth. "You're wondering what's going on, aren't you, I can tell just by looking into your bloodshot eyes, no need for you to speak." She stepped back and reached for a cigarette, lighting it quickly.

"What's going on is that you really should learn to be quieter when sneaking around and trying to drug people, trying to get them into the back of a godforsaken car. I swear if your driver hadn't driven away, I would have had a few words with them, sharp ones. And don't think I won't catch them the next time they're here." She puffed on her cigarette. "You thought you could get away with my twins and my little girl?" Elsa punctuated her last words with a kick to the girl's chair. "You hate freaks, and yet you thought you could take advantage of the miracles beneath my tents? You thought you could make everyone your puppets, then throw them aside?" Her voice grew louder. "You thought you could walk away and take the monstrosities you've seen here, make yourself a name, send me and all my children to the madhouse and the abattoir? No one takes what is mine." Maggie's gaze began to fall with her tears but Elsa jerked her back. "Your drugs worked very well. You barely moved between here and Boston."

Maggie began crying again, saliva mixing with the red painted on her lips and chin. Irritated, disgusted, the ringleader pushed the girl back, crying still, and wiped her hands down the lapel of her suit. She bent down and picked the rag she'd dropped up, stuffing it between Maggie's top and bottom jaw again, ignoring the holes the girl'd already made inside the cloth.

"Keep it there this time, and maybe you won't hurt yourself. Don't yell again." She snapped. She began to head for the opening of the tent, but paused to turn and watch the girl, eyes hard. "You're lucky I didn't add a fin." She hissed. "Who's the freak now?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Headcanoned with and betaed by Grace**

_Maggie traced her fingers down Dot's collarbones, following it to Bette's then dipping down to play with their fresh scar, still red and raised. She rested the palm of her hand on it and looked up, light hazel eyes wide._

_"Did it hurt?"_

_Dot's answer was immediate. "No." She said coldly, but Bette had uttered a small "yes" at the same time. The two glanced at each other, until finally Bette tore away from Dot's incessant stare._

_"No. It's fine. The doctors had us under for most of our stay at the hospital." Dot added, eyeing the fingers against her and her twin's chest._

_"I think it's ugly." Bette blurted. Maggie met her eyes and the twin blushed, Dot's ears turning red too._

_"I think it's a show of strength. Of survival." The honey blonde said softly. "You're both very pretty."_

_Dot's warning ran through Bette's head, but her twin grinned anyway._

The Tattler twins stared down at the girl passed out in her chair, breathing lightly, eyes fluttering behind her eyelids in what looked like nightmares. They shared a quick glance and a small frown, and Dot's hand reached out and slapped Bette's away.

**Don't**.

_**She's having nightmares, we should wake her up.**_

**Idiot, look at her, she's all trussed up. You think she got here and just decided to tie herself up for fun? There's something off.**

_**So, we're not going to help her?**_ Bette bit her lower lip. _**Maybe we should tell someone.**_

Dot scowled. **Like who? Elsa can't be trusted. You know that.**

_**Then Jimmy. Or Ethel. Or not, please don't bristle like that, it makes my arm goosebump.**_

**We can't trust anyone.**

_**I don't think that's necessarily true, you're just being picky.**_

Dot sighed shortly, taking long enough to give her twin a measured glare before she turned back to Maggie, sprawled in her lawn chair. Bette tapped Dot's arm.

_**Whose blood is that do you think?**_

Dot shrugged lightly, her frown deepening as they bent down to get a closer look. They froze as Maggie whined out in her sleep, the rag over her mouth muffling the noise. The Tattlers cast a long look around.

Maggie'd been thrown ungracefully onto her chair, and the chair itself was on the verge of breaking, groaning every time the dirty blonde shifted just a bit. The twins had been walking by on their way to the river when Bette had managed to get Dot to go see the abandoned tent. She was curious, she wanted to know what was in there.

And now they did.

Boxes were stacked dangerously, most threatening to tip over with just the hint of a breeze, and various posters, decayed and frayed, hung around. Dot wondered who the 'Northern Mermaid' was and how long ago it'd been since she'd featured in Elsa's show. They turned back to the dirty blonde.

It'd been four days since the Tattlers had seen Maggie, holding a glass of hot mulled wine out to them with a gentle smile. _Let's be friends_, she'd said. Dot's tolerance for alcohol had won out, along with Elsa's sharp tongue, and she'd walked her and Bette away, passing by a tittering Ma Petite. They'd slept easily that night.

But Maggie hadn't been at camp that morning. Or that evening. And for the last three days Jimmy had been pacing the show, growing more and more restless under Dot's dark gaze. He ignored them now. He had ever since she'd walked into their lives.

_**Don't do that.**_

**Don't do what**.

**_She hasn't done anything to you, don't hate her just because she's making friends._**

Dot scoffed. **Friends?** She wondered if she even wanted to tell Jimmy they'd found the girl. Bette nudged at her.

**_We have to._**

"Yeah. I know." Dot muttered out loud. "Help me wake her up." Bette nodded easily and they both reached out for the gag covering Maggie's mouth.

Bette screamed first.

OOOoooOOO

"We know what's going on."

Elsa Mars looked up, eyes hazy as she put down her opium pipe. She settled back into her pillows, doing her best to take as long as possible as she looked to make herself comfortable. She wanted her visitors to squirm. People waited for Elsa Mars, Elsa Mars did not hurry for anyone. Satisfied, she finally gazed up, a small smile on her face. It grew into a grin.

"Oh? And what would that be?"

Jimmy Darling snarled as he threw a poster out at the ringleader. It landed on her comforters and rolled out, flattening against her legs, the oil paint glinting in the soft glow of her gas lamps. She passed her fingers over the drawings, a particular glint in her gaze as she followed the lines and traced out the words.

"You found my new headliner." She glanced up into the lobster boy's eyes. She was almost purring. "Congratulations." The woman's gaze fell to Suzy before going up to the Tattlers, Eve, and Paul. She smiled lightly. "Should I guess who found her?"

"Dammit Elsa!" Jimmy shouted. He was at her side in an instant, cheeks red. "You can't do that!"

The woman sat up abruptly and thrust a finger in his face. "She was trying to kidnap my freaks, I had every right to do what I did!"

"No, Elsa! No you don't!" The young man yelled back. "She has a family! Friends! People are going to miss her and ask where she's gone!" His voice grew louder and louder until he was screaming. "_She can't even talk_!"

"Jimmy-"

"No, Bette!" He turned to the twin, eyes blazing. "She hurt Maggie!"

"She hurt herself, _Junge_." Elsa snapped. "She got what she deserved. Nothing less, nothing more. That little viper had already drugged Ma Petite and she was going for you two-" She pointed in turn at Bette and Dot. "-And her automobile was already waiting for her and her prizes. She got what she deserved." She repeated. She reached for a cigarette with a harsh flick of her arm.

"Nobody deserves this, Elsa." Paul said quietly.

Jimmy's hand reached out and he picked the cigarette from the blonde's mouth, throwing it down to snuff it out. "What you did was wrong. You coulda asked questions, asked her who she worked for, we coulda worked this out!"

Elsa laughed lightly. "Cry tears of love all you want, _Wolf_, there's nothing you can do about her fate."

Bette's voice shook. "What do you mean?"

"That operation is irreversible. She's part of my show now."

OOOoooOOO

"Do any of you have a handkerchief? The poor thing is bleeding everywhere."

A half dozen tissues were handed to Amazon Eve, and she picked them all from each hand one by one before turning back to Maggie and using one against her neck. She'd bled down to the edge of her sweater days ago. The green had turned black.

The girl'd been crying for hours on end, bouts of uncontrollable sobbing followed by minutes of silent screams and falling tears. Eve held onto her tight, crowing sweet words in her ears that fell on nothing but emptiness as she continued to dab at the falling blood. Every time she closed her mouth, red spurted out.

The ringleader had had Dell hike up a tent in record time, and she'd thrown in a comforter with the straw mattress. She wasn't going back to her hotel now. Maggie's belongings had been stuffed back in her suitcase and left at the opening, and what littered the floor had once belonged to the other freaks. They'd been kind enough to leave a few commodities.

Bette had given her her brush.

"She can't possibly have her perform." Suzy said, voice rising from the floor. "Look at her, she's in so much pain that she can't even stand on her own."

The freaks' gazes fell to Maggie, burrowed in Eve's neck, leaving red, teary trails. It'd taken half an hour to move her from one tent to the other.

"Jimmy, what do we do?"

It took a long time for the boy to look up, his eyes trained on the ground as he played with the bottom of his flannel shirt. He finally scowled, his words like venom. "How the hell should I know? We can't fix this. If Elsa said we can't, then we can't." He picked at a string. "She'll perform if she has to."

"Jimmy."

"There's nothing to do!" He snapped. "And if you don't want this happenin' to you neither, I suggest you do what Elsa says. If she's capable of this, what else is she capable of? Did any of you think of that?" He glanced around, jumping from freak to freak. "If she says jump, you say how high. That's it, end of discussion. Get out."

Dot huffed out and Bette allowed them to leave through the tent's opening. Paul followed with Suzy. But Eve stayed as she held Maggie who'd somehow managed to let Jimmy's yelling lull her to sleep. She snored silently, fitfully.

Eve watched Jimmy as he paced the floor, hands in his pockets. She clicked her tongue. "You're not really giving up, are you."

"Of course not." He kicked at the ground. "She can't do anything in her state. I gotta get Elsa to back off. And Maggie's gonna have to stay out of her sights and out of her thoughts until things aren't as heated up." He looked up. "She's not gonna be okay, is she."

Eve looked him over, but didn't reply.


	3. Chapter 3

_**A little short but it needed to be.**_

_**Headcanoned with and beta-ed by Grace**_

"I'm getting impatient."

Maggie let out a frustrated sigh as she wiped away a stray tear that'd found its way down her cheek and to her chin. She placed her hands back on the cold crystal ball in front of her, palming it almost carefully as her hazel eyes dared to look up at Elsa standing a few feet away, towering over her from a distance. She finally tore her gaze away, fighting off a cough that would have her throat rip again.

"You're not leaving until you give me my song." The older blonde snapped. She paced around the girl. The fortune teller let out a defeated whine as she blinked rapidly, her fingers flexing around the glass. "Come on, you had it earlier, sing louder!"

Maggie's eyes snapped shut and she began to hum the tune she'd made up hours before again, something quick and hurried that had seemed to pacify the ring leader long enough for her to swallow down a reduced, liquid lunch. But now Elsa wanted the rest of it.

She never was good at song writing.

Her voice fell flat as she winced, blood falling down the back of her throat. She spit out what'd collected on the front of her tongue as she coughed out and it landed on the front of her sweater, staining it.

Elsa grimaced. "That'll be fine for now, Eve can fix your tuneless cries. Now, sweetheart, the words."

Maggie opened her mouth, but nothing came out, and she blushed as she looked away. She brought her hand up to her throat, massaging delicately. It hurt too much.

Elsa scowled. "You realize that a freak who cannot work has no place here?"

The girl squeaked and she shook her head violently.

"What? What are you trying to say?" She yelled. Her hand came up.

"Hey, stop that!" Elsa turned to face Jimmy, her hand falling to her side as he entered the ringleader's tent. "Why are you tryin' to hurt to her?" The young man moved to the girl's side and he pushed her hair out of her face. She smiled up gratefully. "If you do that, she'll never heal."

"What do you care?" The blonde snapped back. She reached for a cigarette and lit it with a furious flick of her lighter. "I don't want her to heal, I want her to give me another song."

"How do you want her to answer when she can't talk?"

Elsa turned at the voice, eyes bright. "Will you look at that, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum puppying after Jimmy."

**_Who's who?_**

**Shut up.**

"She can't talk." Dot repeated harshly. Bette's lower lip was trembling.

"Then find her pen and paper, ja?" Elsa laughed lightly. "And a bib."

OOOoooOOO

The twins had done what they'd been asked, dropping the stack of notebook paper in front of the girl, Bette with an encouraging smile and Dot with barely a glance. The pen'd come from Jimmy's shirt pocket, and Maggie's smile had almost been forced.

She took to writing words. She scratched them out and rewrote them, and as time went on, the tears started flowing again. She was trying hard to hide them, her hand coming up to wipe them away. She shot the others a pleading look and they took the hint to leave.

She'd fallen, but she wouldn't let them see her at the bottom.

Jimmy threw her one last look before he exited the main tent, the twins ahead of him.

She kept on trying, but nothing came as Elsa paced behind her and took to sighing every few minutes, tapping her foot on the straw covered floor. Maggie's fingers flew over the paper, but it was scribbles she was writing.

"This is useless." The older blonde sighed angrily. "Luckily for the show, and for you, I've found something new for you to do." The girl glanced up warily, shifting in her seat as the ringleader watched her with hawk hazel eyes. "I didn't think I'd need it, but apparently I do. It's good that I had it installed last night."

She moved to one of the pillars holding the tent up and picked at a rope hanging there, fingers undoing the tight knots until a banner up top unfurled and dropped, five feet long.

Elsa's fingers came to rest on the top of Maggie's head and she slowly turned the girl's gaze until they were both looking at the newest poster hanging off the rafters. It blew lightly with the breeze coming in from outside, but Maggie could easily see it. Elsa's voice was almost soothing. "Look girl, I've found an act for you."

Maggie's mouth dropped open and new tears sprung to the corner of her eyes as she stood to get a closer look.

She'd been drawn onto the fabric, her mouth turned into a grotesque thing as she smiled, teeth sharp. She was almost showing them off. Behind her, on either side of her, stood Jimmy and Paul, both holding out their forelimbs to show off the seal's stunted growth and the boy's lobster claws.

It read "_Creatures of the Deep, Live!_".

Maggie's lips disconnected and she snaked her tongue out, collecting at congealing blood almost out of habit. Her voice was hoarse. "N-no."

"Oh, yes."


End file.
